Registering Domain Names

Can anyone register a domain?
Yes, it does not matter what country you live in or even if you have a web site.

How much does it cost?
The cost of registering a domain name is only $12.99 per year. You can select a registration period ranging from 1 to 10 years. There is no other fee, no NIC fee, no setup fee, no domain parking fee.

What forms of payment do you accept?
We accept credit card payments with VISA, MasterCard, American Express, or Discover Card. With a credit card payment your registration will be completed instantly.

If you would like to pay with a check or money order please make it payable to "URL-domains.com" and mail to the following address along with your domain name and registration info (full name, address, phone, email, and your choice of username/password). If you have already registered a domain name with us, you can just send the previous domain name, username and password. Missing info will cause further delay. Make sure you are requesting an available domain name. Please note that by the time we receive and process your payment there is a chance the requested domain name could be taken.
URL-domains.com
4456 W Greenleaf
Lincolwood.Ill 60712

I thought I could only register domains through NSI?
ICANN opened up the registration process to other registrars in 2000 and the domain name registration system is now open to other companies besides NSI.

How long does the registration take?
It is instantaneous. Your registration will be completed on-line. As soon as you submit and receive the "registration successful" message, it is ready. A confirmation e-mail is also sent right away.

What is the difference between a domain registered through your service and one registered through Network Solutions?
There is absolutely no difference, other than our excellent service and much enhanced tools to assist you. You will find our registration system much easier to use.

Are you ICANN accredited?
Yes. URL-domains.com is an ICANN accredited registrar.

Do I own the domain I register?
In most cases, yes. It is yours to sell, keep, do whatever you like. Please note that registering a domain name does not necessarily convey the legal right to use it. The responsibility to avoid trademark infringement is that of the registrant. Registrants who impinge on the rights of others may lose their domain names by either ICANN's Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) or legal action.

What is bulk registration?
Bulk registration enables you to register multiple domain names at once, saving you time on the process. When you type all the domain names you want in the bulk lookup, it will tell you which domain names are not available and will let you continue with the available names. If you type the domain names without the extensions it will find all available .com, .net or .org. If you type with the extensions, it will only search names with that particular extension.

When I register my domain, don't I need to provide Name Servers?
When you register, your domain name is automatically parked at URL-domains.com servers. Whenever you like to use your own name servers, or want to transfer your domain to a hosting company, you can simply login to Account Manager, and follow the "Name Servers" link to change the name servers.

Can I transfer domains to you from other registrars?
Yes, using our Transfer module you can transfer domains from other registrars to us and renew them at our rates. Please refer to the Transfer section of this page for details.

WHOIS search shows a domain with an expired date. Can I register it?
Although WHOIS may show an expired date, a domain cannot be registered until it is deleted from the root registry database. There is not a certain time period for the deletion. That usually depends on the registrar and on average takes several weeks. Nevertheless it is possible to see domain names passed their expiration date for several months. If the expired domain name belongs to you, you can renew it with your current registrar; otherwise you will have to wait until it is deleted. In most cases an expired domain name cannot be transferred to another registrar. Please refer to our Transfer section for further details.

What is "Unable to Establish Socket" error?
You may encounter this error message if our gateway to the main registry or the main registry itself is experiencing problems. In both cases the problem is totally out of our control. If we are warned in advance of the expected downtime, we announce it in our web page, however sometimes it happens without any warnings. Usually service is restored in a short period of time. We apologize for any inconveniences and thank you for your patience.

What is "Page cannot be displayed" error?
If you are experiencing this error while trying switch to a secure site page (such as when clicking on "Reserve domain name Now" button, or login to Account Manager etc.), then problem might be related to your browser's security settings. If you are an Internet Explorer user, click Tools/Internet Options/Advanced, scroll all the way down to Security heading and make sure "Use SSL 2.0" and/or "SSL 3.0" are checked. If "Use PCT 1.0" or "Use TLS 1.0" are marked, unmark them (set OFF). Also, if your computer is behind a firewall that could be causing a problem. Several of our customers reported a similar problem. If that is the case you may try using a computer that is not behind a firewall.

What is "Invalid XML or unsupported high end ASCII" error?
This error occurs when you have multilingual characters in the data you are submitting. Eliminate the multilingual characters and try it again. If you are not using any multilingual characters and still continue to receive this error, it may have something to do with the settings of your browser or computer. If available, you may try a different browser or a different computer.

Why can I not access to your secure site using Netscape 6 or Mozilla?
Netscape 6 doesn't properly support the SSL protocol. Netscape 6 prefers the TLSv1 protocol. This newer protocol is still under development, and is not widely supported by server software including the version of Apache on our server. The browser is supposed to automatically fallback to the standard SSLv3, however Netscape does not seem to happily 'step down'. This leads to the errors or causes the connection to fail all together. You can work around this problem by turning off TLS in the browser. The steps are the same in either Netscape or Mozilla. From the 'Tasks' menu, select 'Security Manager' under 'Privacy and Security'. Click on the 'Advanced' tab, then the 'Options' button at the left. Finally unselect 'Enable TLS' and close the window. You should now be able to access our site securely.

Why do I get a "Certificate mismatch" error with my Windows 2000 PC?
Microsoft has acknowledged this problem on its Windows 2000 operating system for any browser designed specifically for that OS. Microsoft has already corrected this with their first service pack. Update your Windows 2000 with the latest service pack to correct the error.

After the Registration

I have registered my domain, what do I do next?
If just want to reserve the domain name for future use, you do not have to do anything. If you want to have a web site and email addresses with your domain name, you will need to find a hosting service. Alternatively, you can also use the forwarding options in our Account Manager to forward your domain to your existing web sites or existing email address.

Where do I host my site?
You can host your site with any hosting service you choose. Once you decide on a hosting provider they will tell you how to point your domain to their server by changing your nameservers to theirs. For details see below how to change nameservers.

I have found a hosting company. What do I need to do?
All that needs to be done in our end is changing the nameserver information of your domain name. Find out the nameservers of your hosting company (typically a primary and a secondary) and assign them to your domain name using our Account Manager. Please refer to the section below for details on how to change the name servers. Also make sure your hosting company adds your domain name to their nameservers.

I already have a web site. How do I redirect my domain name to my web site?
You can use the Forwarding option in our Account Manager. See below for more information about Forwarding setup.

I registered my domain today, and received a confirmation that it had been processed, but when I do a WHOIS it says my domain is available.
If you use our WHOIS utility you will not encounter this problem because our database is updated immediately. Root registry whois database is updated once a day, but sometimes it takes two days. In other WHOIS searches, until their database is updated, your domain will show as not being registered. However it is registered, and can not be reserved by another person. To make sure your domain is registered, use our WHOIS utility.

Can I sell or transfer ownership of my domain?
Yes, domain name is yours to either sell or keep. For details please refer to the section below titled "How do I transfer ownership of my domain?"

How do I renew my domain registration?
You can use the "Account Manager" tool to renew your domain names. Your domain must be already registered with us. Otherwise you need to use the "Transfer Domain" section to transfer and renew your domain.

Do you send renewal notifications?
We send multiple renewal notifications. A renewal notice will be automatically sent to your billing contact email address at first 90 days in advance, and second time 60 days in advance, and a third notice 30 days in advance of the expiration date. A fourth notice will be sent 5 days in advance of the expiration date to all contact emails (admin, billing, technical). After that if still not renewed, on the expiration date your domain name will be deactivated and placed in termination queue. This will stop the functioning of all activities regarding your domain name (emails, web pages). A final notice will be sent 10 days after the expiration date to the billing contact email.

Transferring Domain Names

What does "transferring" a domain name mean?
Transferring means changing the registrars. If you have domains that were registered with other registrars such as Network Solutions (Verisign) or Register.com, you do not have to renew your domain with them. You can transfer the domain to us and renew at our low rates. Transfer needs to be done before the domain name expires. Please see the restrictions below.

Transferring a domain name does not mean transfer of ownership or changing hosting company. If you want to "transfer" your domain name to a hosting company please refer to section above titled "I have found a hosting company. What do I need to do?"

What is required to do a transfer? What are the restrictions?
In order to transfer a domain successfully, certain criteria should be met:

- A domain that was registered less than 60 days ago cannot be transferred to us. Just wait 60 days and transfer afterwards.
- Domains that are on HOLD cannot be transferred. Registrars can place a domain on hold due several reasons such as payment issues or legal disputes. Until the ownership issue is solved and domain is taken out of hold, it cannot be transferred.
- If the current registrar has the domain name locked for either non-payment or at the user's request, domain cannot be transferred. If you have purchased but not paid for a domain name, existing registrar will not permit it to be transferred away.
- Expired domains cannot be transferred. Original registrar has the right to refuse the transfer of an expired and unpaid domain. Just to be on the safe side, we recommend that you should allow at least 2 weeks prior to expiration date to do the transfer.
- If you don't have access to the current Admin Contact e-mail of the domain, transfer cannot be done. The Admin Contact's approval via e-mail is required. If your domain's Admin Contact e-mail is not valid anymore, first you should update it with your current registrar, and then apply for transfer. Most of our transfer failures occur due to this reason. You can use WHOIS to find out the current admin contact email address in your domain record.

How do I know my domain meets the requirements?
Use our WHOIS search for the domain in question. It will show you the date it was registered (created), the date it will expire, whether it is on locked or not, and the Admin Contact e-mail. The hold status may not be clear through whois lookup.

Is there any transfer fee? What is my cost?
There are no additional costs. The only amount you will be charged is $13.50 for one-year registration fee. This registration will add one year to the current expiration date of the domain no matter how early you do the transfer.

What are the steps in transfer process?
1- After you submit a transfer request from our transfer page, a confirmation e-mail will be sent to the new Admin Contact e-mail.
2- A separate e-mail for each domain name will also be sent to the current Admin Contact e-mail address. Follow the instructions in that e-mail to indicate your approval.
3- Then the request will be sent to "losing" registrar for their approval. This registrar has to approve or reject normally within 5 days. They usually don't wait that long. Your domain will be renewed for one year and the new expiration date will be one year from the last expiration date. The "losing" registrar may or may not send a confirmation e-mail, indicating whether they approved or rejected the transfer (Network Solutions does send e-mails). If you don't receive an e-mail, using WHOIS you can check the new expiration date of the domain name.

Does it affect the functioning of my web page?
No, transfer process does not change your name servers. Functionality of your web page will not be affected.

How do I transfer my domain to my hosting company?
Transferring to a hosting company is not same as transferring from a registrar. To transfer to a hosting service, all you need to do is changing the name servers of your domain to the name servers of your hosting company. Please refer to How do I change my name servers? section below.

My current admin contact email is wrong. How can I submit a transfer request?
Contact your current registrar and have them correct your admin contact email address. Before submitting the transfer request, using our WHOIS search please make sure the updated email address appears in your domain record. Even after your registrar says it is updated, it can take up to 48 hours for the new email address to appear in the domain record.

Managing the Domain Record

How do I edit my domain information?
All you need to do is login to the Account Manager (for com/net/org domains registered prior to 1/1/2003, you will need to use the Domain Manager for which you will find a link at the Account Manager page). This is a web-based interface that allows for real-time domain updates.

Can I change/cancel my domain name and registration period?
That can be done only if you notify us within the first 3 days of the registration. Once your registration is completed your domain name and registration period is instantly sent to the root servers. Root registry will allow us to delete a name only for a limited period of time. After that, the domain name itself and the registration period cannot be changed and therefore a refund is not possible. Even if you are not after refund, a domain name cannot be cancelled. If you decide not to use it, you can just let it to expire at the end of the registration period.

What is Account Manager?
It is an enhanced web tool that enables you to login and access to your registered domain information for maintenance, update, and editing purposes. With our Account Manager, in case of a change in any of the registration info, you don't have to update every single domain's data one by one. Once you update the information of your Contact ID, its is updated for all domain names that use your Contact ID. Each contact (Owner, Admin, Billing, Technical) can have a different person assigned. Each contact can login to Account Manager with its specific username/password. Contacts have hierarchical rights in the order of Owner, Admin, Billing, Technical. Owner has full rights to all changes including changing the contact information, renewing the domain, changing nameservers, setting up forwarding, creating host records. Admin has all rights except cannot change the Owner contact. Billing contact cannot change the Owner contact and Admin contact. Technical contact cannot change the other contacts and cannot renew the domain name. When a person does login to Account Manager, he/she has access to only the domain names that his/her contact ID is assigned.
You can divide your domains into groups by creating and assigning different Contact IDs. In order to place your domain names under same Contact ID, when you are registering a new domain name use the "Copy Domain Profile from another registration" option.
Account Manager becomes available for use immediately after your registration.

I cannot login.
If you are receiving an "Error Page. Authentication Error" message, you must be typing either the domain name, username, or password incorrectly. Please make sure you are typing the domain name without www prefix but with the domain extension (i.e. domainname.com). The username and password are case sensitive. They should be typed exactly as they were assigned during the registration.

If you cannot even reach to login screen and consistently receive "Page cannot be displayed" error, please read this.

If you are able to login but whenever you click on a link the login screen comes back again, please read this.

Does it cost anything to make changes to my domain record?
No, we charge nothing! It is all in your control, and you have an excellent tool, Account Manager, to maintain, edit, and update your domain information. We will continue to enhance the features of this program.

How long does it take for my information to be updated?
All information is updated instantly. However, it may take up to 24-48 hours for root registry whois servers to reflect the updates and an additional 24 hours for the changes to propagate to entire internet.

Do you do forwarding/redirecting? I want to forward my domain name to my existing web page!
We offer free forwarding service. You can use our Account Manager to setup domain forwarding and email forwarding. After you login to Account Manager, click on "Forwarding" link. If your domain name is not setup with our nameservers you will receive a warning to update them. Then click on "Setup Forwarding" to enable the forwarding options. In the next page you will be shown "Web Forwarding" and "Email Forwarding" links. Use Web Forwarding to forward/redirect your domain name to a certain web page or to display an under construction page. Use Email forwarding to forward emails sent to your domain name to an existing email address of yours.

How do I change my nameservers?
Login to Account Manager program using your domain name, username, and password (for com/net/org domains registered prior to 1/1/2003, you will need to use the Domain Manager for which you will find a link at the Account Manager page). Click on the "Nameservers" link at the top. In the next screen type the new name servers in place of existing primary and secondary name servers. You should type only the names, not the IP numbers. Make sure you do not have spaces at the beginning or end of the name. Click "Save Configuration".

You can change the name servers of all your domains under one profile at once, by marking the "Modify All" box.

Nameserver changes can take up to 72 hours to take effect. It takes 24 to 48 hours for the root servers to get updated and an additional 24 hours for changes to propagete to internet.

I have accidentally deleted my nameservers. How do I add them back?
You can add them one at a time. First type your primary nameserver and click the button, then type the secondary nameserver and click the button.

Can I create/register my own nameservers?
You can create/register your own nameservers based on your domain name. Login to Account Manager with this domain name, click on "Host Records" and follow the instrcutions in that page.

How can my hosting company update my domain information?
Under the "Domain Contact/Profile" create a new Technical contact with your hosting company's data and assign them a new username/password. Provide the username/password to them and they can login to Accoutn Manager as the technical contact. They will have limited rights only to make nameserver changes.

I have forgotten my password (and/or username), how can I get it?
Email support@URL-domains.com with your request including your domain name or order ID. Your Username and Password will be sent to the Admin Contact email address. Support personnel cannot see your username and password. We can only make the system send it to the Admin Contact email. Username and password cannot be sent to a different email address. That is an important reason to have a valid Admin Contact email address entered during the registration.

How do I transfer ownership of my domain?
You can login to Account Manager and under the "Domain Contact/Profile" section create a new Contact ID with the new owner information and new username/password. Mark other contacts "Same as Owner Contact". Then provide the new owner with the new username and password. New owner can login to Account Manager and change the username/password under "My Contact Data" section. If you want to change ownership of multiple domain names, you can assign the same Contact ID to all domain names. It is also advised that in selling domain names you protect yourself with written documentation to avoid possible legal disputes.

When I login to Account Manager I don't see all my domains. How can I manage them together?
That is probably because you have separate Contact IDs for those domain names. Choose the Contact ID that is assigned to most number of domain names as your main Contact ID. Then login to other domain names and assign this Contact ID to them.

Can you make the necessary changes for me?
For security purposes our support personnel do not have access to your username and passwords, therefore cannot make the changes for you. The Account Manager program is designed to help you with all your update needs. If you have any questions, our support personnel can always assist you.

In Account Manager when I click on any link it takes me back to login screen!
Our Account Manager program requires that the cookie function is enabled in your browser. Check your browser settings to enable cookie option. If you are using IE version 5.x, go to Tools/Internet_Options/Security/Custom_Level; find 'Cookies' and enable it. If you are using IE version 6, go to Tools/Internet_Options/Privacy, and make sure cookie accept is enabled. Netscape users, go to Edit/Preferences/Advanced, and mark to accept cookies.

General Information

What is a domain name?
The unique name that identifies an Internet site. Domain Names always have 2 or more parts, separated by dots, like "yourname.com", "house.net", "tree.org".

What is the difference between .com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, and .us domain names?
The domain suffixes basically differentiate between the various types of organizations on the Internet.
Generally, the following rules apply:
.com -- businesses and commercial enterprises
.net -- network-related organizations and enterprises
.org -- charitable or non-profit organizations
However these are not absolute rules. Anybody can register any of these names and domain extension and they can be used for any purposes. .biz domain names have restrictions. It can be only registered for businesses. Please refer to Biz F.A.Q. above for details. .us domain names have restrictions. It can be only registered by US residents or companies. Please refer to US F.A.Q. above for details.
The domain suffix type itself has no bearing on accessibility on the Internet from a technical standpoint, but over time the .com domain type has become the most popular and recognizable on the Internet.

What is the maximum length of a domain name?
A valid domain name can have min. 2 max. 63 characters (excluding the extension). You can use any combination of 26 letters in English alphabet, numbers from 0 to 9 and "-" (dash) character. No profanity or use of any name protected by trademark.

Once I have a domain name secured, how long may I use it?
If there are no trademark disputes, your secured domain name will be yours for as long as you maintain the yearly registration fees.

What if my desired name is the same as a trademarked name?
Generally, if you've registered the name in good faith, it's not a name belonging to an internationally known company, and you can show that you have a legitimate reason to use that name then you are likely to be able to keep that name. That may not be the case if it can be shown that you purchased the name for the express purpose of reselling it to a company with a legitimate claim to the name.

Why should people register domain name(s)?
Just like a company logo, brand name, your domain name too represents your business identity. If you want people to find your web site easily, you will need a domain name.

What is WHOIS?
WHOIS is a tool to retrieve the registration information of a domain name, including the registrant's name, contact information, and record creation date.

What are Name Servers?
A nameserver is a computer that holds records of domain names. Those records indicate where the browser should look to display the web pages for the domain name.

What are registrar and registrant?
Registrar is the service through which a domain name is registered. URL-domains, Network Solutions, Register.com etc are registrars. A registrant is the person who registers and owns the domain name.